“He who unites the greatest number of advantages, and retaining them to the day of his death, then dies peaceably, that man alone, sire, is, in my judgment, entitled to bear the name of ‘happy.’ But in every matter it behoves us to mark well the end: for oftentimes God gives men a gleam of happiness, and then plunges them into ruin.”
~ ‘The History’ by Herodotus (George Rawlinson translation. GB6 - p. 8)
The book starts with Herodotus stating his purpose - that he is recording great deeds done by the Greeks and the Barbarians (non-Greeks) after doing a lot of research. He also says that he is recording things as a neutral party by presenting views from both sides.
1 - The Beginning of the East-West Conflict
It all began as a tit-for-tat kidnapping of beautiful women. The first was the abduction of Io by the Phoenicians, who then took her to Egypt. Then, at a later period, Greeks seized Europa, the then Phoenician King’s daughter. Later, the Greeks kidnapped Medea from Colchis. When Paris abducted Helen, the Greeks launched a major battle and destroyed Troy. The Easterners blamed the Greeks for escalating a minor thing into a major issue and thus became their mortal enemies. Here is a direct quote -
The Asiatics, when the Greeks ran off with their women, never troubled themselves about the matter; but the Greeks, for the sake of a single Lacedaemonian girl, collected a vast armament, invaded Asia, and destroyed the kingdom of Priam. Henceforth they ever looked upon the Greeks as their open enemies.